At times in Christian thought, the priorities of pure doctrine and passionate mission have been perceived as opposites on a spectrum where emphasis on one results in neglect of the other, but without one, the other is deficient and doomed to crumble. Mission without doctrine is like a body without a skeleton, but apart from mission, doctrine is like dry bones in a museum. A Lutheran Reformission maintains a dual emphasis, resulting in doctrinal missions as well as missional doctrine.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Q:On many occasions this year, I
have received emails or seen social networking posts that the way days of the
week fall within a month or the way numbers align in the date have the
potential to bring wealth, luck, or other benefits if I take certain action.First, is this legitimate?Second, is it acceptable for a Christian to
trust in such things to receive the promised benefits?

I have seen these posts myself.One of them claimed that the circumstance
that there were five Fridays, five Saturdays, and five Sundays occurring during
July 2011, was called “moneybags” and only happened every 823 years.It claimed that if a person re-posted or
forwarded the message, they would receive money, but if they did not, the
message warned, they would be without money.

Another message attached special
significance to four particular dates:1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, and 11/11/11 with similar promises and
warnings that the recipient’s actions, which must occur at or before 11:11 on 11/11/11,
would bring them either a blessing or a curse.

To begin with, claims such as the
“moneybags” myth mentioned in the first example are factually inaccurate.The phenomenon described actually occurs once
every 5-11 years, depending on where the leap years fall.Secondly, even if the events described were
as rare as they are claimed to be, there is no observable evidence that the
benefits described have occurred in the past.

For Christians, 1 Timothy 4:7 gives
perspective on practices such as those described above.In that verse, Paul says, “Have nothing to do
with irreverent, silly myths.Rather
train yourself for godliness.

In the Old Testament, God had
forbidden all types of divination, which was the practice of seeking guidance
or knowledge of the future through manipulating or observing elements of nature
unrelated to the events in question.So,
for example, kings of unbelieving nations might ask a priest of their religion
to slaughter a sheep or goat and study its organs to find out how an upcoming
battle would go, or they might observe the pattern in which a flock of birds
fly to discern which strategy to use.Horoscopes are an example of how this ideology continues even to this
day.

God clearly commanded His people that
they were not to engage in such practices, and connected this command to the
First and Second Commandments, which forbid idolatry, and the misuse of God’s
name.As such, these prohibitions
continue into the New Testament era for Christians.Because all of the above actions describe
trust in some other force than the Triune God for blessing, they are a form of
idolatry to be avoided by Christians.

The Bible does at times speak
positively about discerning the signs found in nature, but these are always
observed natural correlations between an event and the result which follows,
such as the color of the sky relating to weather which might follow, or the
color of leaves indicating the change of seasons.

Regarding the alignments of days in a
month or dates in a year, we must also note that our modern calendar is not a
divinely-given system, but rather a humanly-devised method or organizing
time.So, as such, it would bear no
correlation to divine promises for blessing.

Finally, assumptions such as those
above are opposed to a Christian worldview.In the religion from which these superstitions arise, it is assumed that
the god/gods/universe are against us and inclined to do us harm, and it is only
if we act in the specified ways that they will be forced to bless us.

Christianity, on the other hand,
proposes that God, in fact, desires to act on our behalf and takes the
initiative Himself to bring us blessing.He does this by providing for our obvious needs of food, clothing,
shelter, etc. but more importantly by forgiving sins because of the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus for all who trust in Him.

Even though it might appear that we
need to appease the deities and forces of the universe by our own action, the
God who created them has already acted, both through creation and through His
Son, to provide us with all of our needs of body and soul, not based on our own
worthiness or ability, but because of His own kindness and righteousness.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Q:I know Lutherans and most
Protestants teach that people are saved “by grace alone,”(based on Ephesians
2:8-9, Romans 3, etc.) but I see so many verses in the Bible which seem to say
otherwise (James 2:24, 1 Peter 4:8, etc.).Which is true?Do these Bible
verses contradict each other, or is there some other explanation?

Verses like those noted here can be
very challenging for those who understand that humans can only be saved by
grace and contribute nothing from themselves to receive it, because the verses seem
to contradict that idea. However, there is a subtle distinction which helps to
shed light on why James and Peter can speak in this way, which seems
drastically different from what we see Paul saying in Galatians, Ephesians, and
Romans.

This distinction is that there are two kinds of righteousness portrayed in the
Bible, and along with them two kinds of justification. This word,
justification, can be used as a technical term for the forgiveness of a sinner
by God as a gift, but it also has a more general meaning of validating or
confirming the truthfulness of our position or actions in the eyes of other
people.

The first type of righteousness acts in a vertical direction--that is between
God and man. This vertical righteousness is what we normally think of as
Lutherans when we hear the word, justification. This is the type of righteousness that comes
from God as a gift to us, apart from any worthiness on our part.

The second type of righteousness occurs in a horizontal direction--that is
between man and his fellow man. While the vertical sort of righteousness or
justification is where our salvation occurs, we continue to live in
relationship with other people in our everyday lives. It is within these
relationships that the horizontal sort of righteousness or justification
occurs, where the actions of the Christian are intended to validate or confirm
the truthfulness of the claims of Christianity in the eyes of those who observe
our lives

So, when James says, “You see that a person is justified by works, and not
faith alone,” he is speaking of the way that our actions serve to validate or
invalidate the Christian faith we claim to believe, when our actions are viewed
by other people, particularly those outside of the Church.If we act in a way that reflects what we
believe, it confirms the Christian faith in their eyes.If we act hypocritically or in habitual sin,
it invalidates the Christian faith in their eyes.If we read James' words in context, we can
see that this is the sort of thing he is speaking of with the word
"justification" and that he is not discussing how we relate to God.

Just as there are two directions in which righteousness and justification
occur, there are also two directions in which sin occurs. We can sin against
God alone by breaking any of the first three commandments. However, when we sin
against the remaining commandments, we sin not only against God, but also
against our fellow man. When Peter says, “Above all, keep loving one another,
since love covers over a multitude of sins,” he is speaking to those who are
already Christians.So, when he talks
about love covering a multitude of sins, this is what he speaks of--not that
our love reduces the burden of our sins in God's eyes (because Jesus has
already completely fulfilled that need), but that love covers over or abates
the division and discord that are the result of our sins and separate or
embitter the relationship between the sinner and the one against whom he has
sinned.

Lutheranism is more than a cultural identity or a denominational label. In fact, this cultural and institutional baggage may be the primary obstacle in Lutheranism’s path.

To be a Lutheran is not dependent on a code of behavior or a set of common customs. Instead, to be a Lutheran is to receive Jesus in His Word, Body, and Blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Divine Service; and to be bearers of this pure Truth to a broken world corrupted with sin, death, and every lie of the devil and man’s own sinful heart.

While the false and misleading ideas of human religious invention are appealing to sin-blinded minds, they fail when exposed to the realities of life. It is tragic when souls are led to confusion and despair because of the false religious ideas with which they are surrounded. The Biblical doctrine taught by the Apostles and restored at the Reformation holds answers which are relevant regardless of time or place and offers assurance of forgiven sins and eternal life who all who believe its message.

I am a husband, a father, the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Burt, IA, and track chaplain at Algona Raceway.